1. Technical Field
The present invention pertains to cleats for use with shoes worn on turf and other surfaces. In particular, the present invention pertains to a golf cleat that provides traction on various types of surfaces and for specific purposes.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The need for providing improved traction elements for the soles of shoes on turf surfaces is well known in the art, particularly in the field of sports such as football, baseball, soccer and golf. In many sports, particularly golf, the need for providing improved traction elements must be considered in combination with limiting the wear and tear on the playing turf that can be caused by the traction elements.
In recent years, there has been a change from using penetrating metal spikes for golf shoes to removable plastic cleats that are much more turf-friendly and less harmful to clubhouse floor surfaces. However, the challenge with utilizing plastic cleats is to design a cleat having suitable traction on turf surfaces while being suitably protected from wear and tear due to contact with hard surfaces such as asphalt or concrete.
An example of a removable plastic cleat having desirable traction characteristics is described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,167,641 (McMullin), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In the McMullin patent there is disclosed a removable cleat having a hub with an upper surface facing the shoe sole and a bottom surface facing away from the sole. A hub attachment member extends from the upper surface for attaching the hub to one of plural sole-mounted attachment means. Traction elements extend outwardly and downwardly from the hub, each traction element being deflectably attached to the hub so that it pivotally and resiliently deflects toward the sole when it encounters a hard surface. When used on grass or turf, the traction element deflection results in grass blades being trapped between the upper surface of the traction elements and the sole of the shoe, thereby grabbing the grass blades and providing the desired traction function. In addition, the deflection serves to minimize abrasive wear of the traction elements on hard surfaces such as golf paths. Importantly, the traction elements do not penetrate the surface on which they are used, thereby minimizing damage to the turf. Although this cleat is effective for the purpose described, improvements are desirable in certain aspects of the cleat performance. For example, on hard surfaces such as found in a tee box, dirt path, concrete, asphalt, tile, etc., the deflecting traction elements provide only minimal, if any, traction since each traction element is designed to spread and flex on the ground surface.
Another removable plastic cleat for golf shoes is disclosed in published PCT application WO 01/54528 of Japana Co., LTD. The Japana golf shoe cleat includes a plurality of long and short legs protruding outwardly from a body of the cleat to contact a turf surface when connected to the sole of a shoe. The long legs and short legs are disposed along a periphery of the cleat body in an alternating configuration, where one or more long legs are provided between two adjacent short legs. The long legs are designed to provide traction on turf whereas the short legs press down hard on the grass and chiefly support the weight bearing on the cleat. The Japana publication is limited in that it only discloses symmetrically alternating long and short legs extending from the shoe sole. Thus, the axially symmetric Japana cleat is not capable of being indexed or oriented in specific or selected different positions with respect to the shoe sole. That is, the Japana cleat cannot be selectively positioned such that the weight bearing shorter legs and the penetrating longer legs in different alignments based upon cleat applications requiring different directions and levels of traction.
It is therefore desirable to provide a cleat that minimizes damage to turf surfaces yet provides suitable traction for the shoe on harder surfaces as well as different levels of traction at different portions of the shoe based upon selected orientations of the shoe cleat with respect to the shoe sole.